Baruch Spinoza was a Dutch philosopher of Portuguese Sephardi origin. One of the early thinkers of the Enlightenment and modern biblical criticism, including modern conceptions of the self and the universe, he came to be considered one of the great rationalists of 17th-century philosophy. Profoundly inspirational Baruch Spinoza quotes will fire up your brain and encourage you to look at life differently while making you laugh.
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Famous Baruch Spinoza Quotes
The highest activity a human being can attain is learning for understanding because to understand is to be free. Baruch Spinoza
The more you struggle to live, the less you live. Give up the notion that you must be sure of what you are doing. Instead, surrender to what is real within you, for that alone is sure you are above everything distressing. Spinoza
No matter how thin you slice it, there will always be two sides. Baruch Spinoza
I do not know how to teach philosophy without becoming a disturber of the peace. Baruch Spinoza
The most tyrannical of governments are those which make crimes of opinions, for everyone has an inalienable right to his thoughts. Baruch Spinoza
No matter how thin you slice it, there will always be two sides. Spinoza
What Paul says about Peter tells us more about Paul than about Peter. Baruch Spinoza
If you want the present to be different from the past, study the past. Baruch Spinoza
Men believe themselves to be free, simply because they are conscious of their actions, and unconscious of the causes whereby those actions are determined. Baruch Spinoza
Everything excellent is as difficult as it is rare. Baruch Spinoza
If you want the present to be different from the past, study the past. Baruch Spinoza
I have made a ceaseless effort not to ridicule, not to bewail, not to scorn human actions, but to understand them. Baruch Spinoza
Reason connot defeat emotion, an emotion can only be displaced or overcome by a stronger emotion. Baruch Spinoza
The more clearly you understand yourself and your emotions, the more you become a lover of what is. Spinoza
The more you struggle to live, the less you live. Give up the notion that you must be sure of what you are doing. Instead, surrender to what is real within you, for that alone is sure you are above everything distressing. Baruch Spinoza
Peace is not the absence of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition of benevolence, confidence, justice. Baruch Spinoza
Nothing in nature is by chance. Something appears to be chance only because of our lack of knowledge. Baruch Spinoza
Those who wish to seek out the cause of miracles and to understand the things of nature as philosophers, and not to stare at them in astonishment like fools, are soon considered heretical and impious, and proclaimed as such by those whom the mob adores as the interpreters of nature and the gods. For these men know that, once ignorance is put aside, that wonderment would be taken away, which is the only means by which their authority is preserved. Baruch De Spinoza
The world would be happier if men had the same capacity to be silent that they have to speak. Baruch Spinoza
Do not weep. Do not wax indignant. Understand. Baruch Spinoza
Desire nothing for yourself, which you do not desire for others. Baruch Spinoza
When a man is prey to his emotions, he is not his own master. Benedict de Spinoza
The highest endeavor of the mind, and the highest virtue, it to understand things by intuition. Baruch Spinoza
What Paul says about Peter tells us more about Paul than about Peter. Baruch Spinoza
The more clearly you understand yourself and your emotions, the more you become a lover of what is. Baruch Spinoza
Be not astonished at new ideas; for it is well known to you that a thing does not therefore cease to be true because it is not accepted by many. Baruch Spinoza
The holy word of God is on everyone’s lips but we see almost everyone presenting their own versions of God’s word, with the sole purpose of using religion as a pretext for making others think as they do. Baruch Spinoza
I would warn you that I do not attribute to nature either beauty or deformity, order or confusion. Only in relation to our imagination can things be called beautiful or ugly, well ordered or confused. Baruch Spinoza
Everything excellent is as difficult as it is rare. Baruch Spinoza
Emotion, which is suffering, ceases to be suffering as soon as we form a clear and precise picture of it. Baruch Spinoza
He who seeks equality between unequals seeks an absurdity. Baruch Spinoza
I have striven not to laugh at human actions, not to weep at them, nor to hate them, but to understand them. Baruch Spinoza
When a man is prey to his emotions, he is not his own master. Baruch Spinoza
There is no hope unmingled with fear, and no fear unmingled with hope. Benedictus de Spinoza
God is not He who is, but That which is. Baruch Spinoza
In so far as the mind sees things in their eternal aspect, it participates in eternity. Baruch de Spinoza
Freedom is self determination. Baruch Spinoza
The endeavor to understand is the first and only basis of virtue. Baruch Spinoza
I have made a ceaseless effort not to ridicule, not to bewail, not to scorn human actions, but to understand them. Baruch Spinoza
No to laugh, not to lament, not to detest, but to understand. Benedict de Spinoza
The supreme mystery of despotism, its prop and stay, is to keep men in a state of deception, and with the specious title of religion to cloak the fear by which they must be held in check, so that they will fight for their servitude as if for salvation. Baruch Spinoza
Further conceive, I beg, that a stone, while continuing in motion, should be capable of thinking and knowing, that it is endeavoring, as far as it can, to continue to move. Such a stone, being conscious merely of its own endeavor and not at all indifferent, would believe itself to be completely free, and would think that it continued in motion solely because of its own wish. This is that human freedom, which all boast that they possess, and which consists solely in the fact, that men are conscious of their own desire, but are ignorant of the causes whereby that desire has been determined. Spinoza
We feel and know that we are eternal. Baruch Spinoza
Pride is pleasure arising from a man’s thinking too highly of himself. Baruch Spinoza
Happiness is not the reward of virtue, but is virtue itself; nor do we delight in happiness because we restrain from our lusts; but on the contrary, because we delight in it, therefore we are able to restrain them. Baruch Spinoza
The greatest secret of monarchic rule is to keep men deceived and to cloak in the specious name of religion the fear by which they must be checked, so that they will fight for slavery as they would for salvation, and will think it not shameful, but a most honorable achievement, to give their life and blood that one man may have a ground for boasting. Baruch Spinoza
Whatsoever is contrary to nature is contrary to reason, and whatsoever is contrary to reason is absurd. Baruch Spinoza
There can be no hope without fear, and no fear without hope. Baruch Spinoza
Philosophy has no end in view save truth; faith looks for nothing but obedience and piety. Baruch Spinoza
Happiness is not the reward of virtue, but is virtue itself; nor do we delight in happiness because we restrain from our lusts; but on the contrary, because we delight in it, therefore we are able to restrain them. Benedict de Spinoza
Hatred is increased by being reciprocated, and can on the other hand be destroyed by love. Baruch Spinoza
In practical life we are compelled to follow what is most probable; in speculative thought we are compelled to follow truth. Baruch Spinoza
Freedom is absolutely necessary for the progress in science and the liberal arts. Baruch Spinoza
A free man thinks of nothing less than of death, and his wisdom is a meditation, not on death, but on life. Baruch Spinoza
Laws which prescribe what everyone must believe, and forbid men to say or write anything against this or that opinion, are often passed to gratify, or rather to appease the anger of those who cannot abide independent minds. Baruch Spinoza
Better that right counsels be known to enemies than that the evil secrets of tyrants should be concealed from the citizens. They who can treat secretly of the affairs of a nation have it absolutely under their authority; and as they plot against the enemy in time of war, so do they against the citizens in time of peace. Baruch Spinoza
Believers are but triflers who, when they cannot explain a thing, run back to the will of God; this is, truly, a ridiculous way of expressing ignorance. Baruch Spinoza
None are more taken in by flattery than the proud, who wish to be the first and are not. Benedict Spinoza
Men who are ruled by reason desire nothing for themselves which they would not wish for all mankind. Baruch Spinoza
